Someone who knows way more about psychology than I could probably come up with an intriguing meta about how Famine's power basically supercharged the Id until the Ego was powerless to hold it back.

You might see that literally personified in Castiel as Ego being completely overwhelmed by Jimmy or the Jimmy urges as Id.

The reason why Dean wasn't affected may be because his Super-Ego is grossly overdeveloped, though to Famine read as him being "dead inside" (or that he simply didn't understand what he was seeing in Dean). Dean, for pretty much all his life but much more after 40 years in Hell (a decade of which he himself was torturer), is near constantly assailed by feelings of guilt and inferiority.

I had this really disturbing dream last night of Dean, raised as an orphan and tossed through the foster system most of his life, who'd become this sociopathic special forces soldier that's had a thousands of "enemy kills" and .... basically a monster, but an acceptable one since it's the "enemy" he's killing. That's what I get I suppose from watching "Skin" while only half-conscious. *cringes*

I was working on this on Sunday, quit it because I was having difficulty matching up some of the archetypes, but decided to finish it and post what I have after all. Because I'm a total geek who loves me some Campbell. XD

Anyway, this is a table illustrating how S4 & S5, focus on Dean, might be following Campbell's Hero's Journey template. I could have done Sam and Castiel too, but it would have gotten massive (aka, more work than I was willing to put into it and I'm a lazy bastard with my fanon). Some of them I wasn't sure on or left blank (as S5 isn't over yet), but others were surprisingly easy to match. I heard Kripke was a fan of Campbell, after filling out the table, I can believe it. Also, if this looks at all familiar, it's because I snagged it from here, which I hope I won't get in trouble for. Noticing how well SPN fits into the archetypes? I'm not uncomfortable saying it's likely a fellow Campbellian story. Kripke probably has probably got several worn copies of The Hero With A Thousand Faces lying around.

Any comments or suggestions for the blank, question marked places or any of it really, feel free to post them.

ETA. On second thought, there was no reason, barring my laziness, I couldn't include Sam and Castiel too (though sacrificing the SW and "The Matrix" portions, but they weren't mine anyway). Also better I included them, just to show they're ALL on the Hero's Journey, not just Dean. ;)